490 

f       MsDa 


BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 

•o 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

UNITED    STATES    GEOLOGICAL    SURVEY 
J.  W.  POWELL   DIRECTOR 


MANGANESE 


T.   IXAY 


ABSTRACT    FROM    ;' MINERAL    RESOURCES    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES, 

CALENDAR  YEARS  1883  AND  1884"— ALBERT  WILLIAMS,  JR., 

CHIEF  OF  DIVISION  OF  MINING  STATISTICS 


WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE 

1885 


DEPARTMENT  OF  THE 

UNITED  STATES  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY 

J.  W.  POWELL  DIRECTOR 


MANGANESE 


BY 


ZXA.VTD   T. 


ABSTRACT   FROM    "MINERAL    RESOURCES    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES, 

CALENDAR  YEARS  1883  AND  1884"— ALBERT  WILLIAMS,  JR., 

CHIEF  OF  DIVISION  OF  MINING  STATISTICS 


WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT    PRINTING    OFF.IOE 

1885 


MANGANESE. 

BY  DAVID  T.  DAY. 

Occurrence. — Manganese  occurs  as  an  essential  constituent  of  several 
well  known  minerals,  and  it  is  also  found  in  small  quantity  in  many  others, 
often  giving  them  a  characteristic  color.  Silicates  frequently  contain 
traces  of  manganese,  and  by  their  decomposition  manganese  passes  into 
the  soil  and  is  taken  up  to  a  slight  extent  by  plants.  Further  it  may  be 
stated  as  a  general  rule  that  where  iron  ores  occur  the  ores  of  the  closely 
allied  metal  manganese  may  also  be  found,  sometimes  in  well  defined 
masses,  more  frequently  forming  merely  a  small  percentage  of  the  iron 
ore.  On  the  other  hand  all  the  manganese  minerals  are  found  to  con- 
tain iron,  though  occasionally  large  beds  of  manganese  ores  are  met 
with  in  such  pure  condition  that  iron  can  be  found  only  as  a  trifling  im- 
purity, less  in  amount  than  that  of  other  metals  such  as  nickel  and  co- 
balt. The  question  whether  a  given  mineral  can  be  considered  a  prac- 
tical ore  of  manganese  is  decided  not  merely  by  the  amount  of  metallic 
manganese  which  it  contains,  but  principally  by  the  use  to  which  it  is 
put.  It  thus  frequently  happens  that  ores  very  poor  in  manganese  find 
sale,  while  others  containing  three  or  four  times  the  amount  remain 
unmined.  The  two  principal  uses  for  manganese  are  (1)  in  the  form  of 
manganese  dioxide  as  an  oxidizing  agent,  and  (2)  as  an  addition  to 
iron.  For  the  first  the  richest  ores  obtainable  are  the  only  ones  used. 
But  frequently  an  ore  containing  only  a  small  amount  of  manganese  but 
comparatively  rich  in  iron  is  used  as  a  valuable  source  from  which  to 
obtain  iron  alloyed  with  the  desired  amount  of  manganese.  It  is  to  be 
borne  in  mind  that  in  this  last  use — as  an  addition  to  iron — the  richer 
ores  would  be  valuable  if  it  were  not  for  the  fact  that  they  usually  con- 
tain phosphorus  in  some  form  of  combination. 

Character  of  the  ores. — Manganese  is  chiefly  found  as  manganese 
dioxide  or  pyrolusite  (MnO2) ;  it  also  occurs  as  braunite  or  brown  oxide 
of  manganese  (Mn2O3)  j  manganite  (Mn2O3,  H2O) ;  hausmannite  (Mn3O4) ; 
and  as  psilomelane,  which  contains  manganese  dioxide  together  with 
compounds  of  barium  or  potassium  and  frequently  iron,  nickel,  or  cobalt. 
Manganese  carbonate  also  occurs  in  quantity  sufficient  for  its  use  as  a 
valuable  ore  in  Germany ;  and  knebelite  and  manganiferous  garnet,  both 
silicates  containing  iron  and  manganese,  have  found  special  application 
in  the  manufacture  of  spiegel  iron.  Pyrolusite  and  braunite  have  been 
the  important  manganese  ores  of  the  United  States  until  recently,  when 
a  hydrated  variety  of  psilomelane  called  " wad  "  or  "  bog  manganese" 
has  become  an  article  of  commerce.  The  terms  used  by  dealers  to  dis- 
tinguish the  various  ores  of  manganese  are  frequently  different  from 
those  given  here,  and  much  confusion  exists.  For  a  discussion  of  this 

550 


MANGANESE. 


551 


subject  the  reader  is  referred  to  "  Mineral  Resources  of  the  United 
States,  1882,"  page  425. 

Localities  in  the  United  States. — The  extent  of  the  manganese  deposits 
in  the  United  States  is  unusually  great  when  compared  with  the  depos- 
its in  other  lauds.  They  occur  irregularly  distributed  through  the 
eastern  States  from  Maine  to  Georgia.  Mines  were  formerly  worked 
for  bog  manganese  in  several  well  known  localities  in  Knox,  Oxford  j 
and  Hancock  counties,  Maine.  Bog  manganese  is  again  met  with, 
though  sparingly,  in  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Massachusetts,  Rhode 
Island,  New  York,  and  Pennsylvania.  From  Maryland  to  Georgia  black 
oxide  of  manganese  is  much  more  common  than  bog  manganese,  al- 
though the  latter  is  met  with  occasionally  in  Virginia  and  North  Caro- 
lina. These  deposits  of  black  oxide  are  the  important  sources  of  Amer- 
ican manganese.  The  most  northern  deposit  is  near  Brookeville,  Mont- 
gomery county,  Maryland.  This  was  formerly  worked,  but  no  manga- 
nese ore  is  now  mined  in  Maryland. 

Proceeding  southward,  the  Crimora  mine  at  Crimora  station  on  the 
Shenandoah  Valley  railroad,  Augusta  county,  Virginia,  ranks  as  the 
most  important  mine  in  the  United  States.  In  1867  a  stock  company 
bought  the  land  containing  this  mine  from  Mr.  Flannigan,  of  Charlottes- 
ville,  for  $3,000 ;  as  soon  as  operations  for  mining  were  actually  begun, 
the  mine  was  valued  at  $24,000.  The  stock  company  continued  mining 
until  1869,  when  the  total  receipts  showed  a  loss,  owing  to  lack  of  ex- 
perience in  the  managers.  From  May,  1869,  to  April,  1882,  the  mines 
were  alternately  either  idle  or  worked  by  Mr.  Samuel  W.  Donald  in  the 
interest  of  the  stock  company.  On  April  29, 1882,  the  mines  were  leased 
for  five  years  to  Messrs.  James  B.  White  &  Co.,  of  Pittsburgh,  Penn- 
sylvania, who  have  put  in  new  machinery  and  increased  the  yearly  prod- 
uct abou-t  fourfold.  During  the  early  years  the  ore  was  shipped  to 
England  and  Belgium  ;  lately  it  has  been  used  in  making  spiegel  iron  in 
this  country  and  for  making  bromine  on  the  Ohio  river.  An  analysis 
of  the  Crimora  ore,  made  by  Prof.  Andrew  S.  McCreath,  is  given  below. 
The  analysis  was  apparently  made  from  a  particularly  good  specimen  and 
cannot  be  said  to  represent  the  average  value  of  the  ore.  It  serves  how- 
ever to  indicate  the  nature  of  the  impurities  met  with  in  manganese  ores. 

Analysis  of  pyrolu site  from  the  Crimora  mine,  Virginia. 


Per  cent. 

81.70 

Manganeso  oxide                          

7.28 

Ferric  oxide 

.55 

Cobalt  oxide     

.35 

Nickel  oxide 

.09 

Zinc  oxide  

.62 

Alumina 

.90 

Baryta     

.83 

liime 

.88 

Magnesia  

.63 

Phosphoric  acid 

.17 

Alkalies  

.47 

Silica         ' 

2.  13 

Water  

3.40 

100.00 

552 


MINE K'A I.    RESOURCES. 


Manganese  is  found  at  as  many  as  thirteen  other  points  in  Wythe, 
Giles,  Bland,  Campbell,  Louisa,  Nelson,  and  other  counties  of  Virginia. 
The  mines  in  Pittsylvania  and  Nelson  counties  are  especially  large. 
At  Goshen  Bridge,  Rockbridge  county,  mines  have  been  opened  from 
which  20  tons  per  day  can  be  furnished. 

In  North  Carolina  manganese  ores  (pyrolusite  and  wad)  are  met  with 
in  Cherokee,  Catawba,  and  Cabarrus  counties,  but  not  in  large  quantity 
and  of  a  hard  quality.  As  a  rule  these  hard  ores  are  coincident  with 
poor  ores,  because  pyrolusite  is  softer  than  the  less  valuable  manganite 
and  bra  unite.  In  South  Carolina  deposits  have  been  found  at  Hard 
Labor  creek,  and  a  project  is  on  foot  to  obtain  manganese  from  the 
Dorris  mine. 

The  chief  rivals  of  the  Virginia  ores  are  those  of  the  "  Etowah  re- 
gion," Bartow  county,  Georgia.  A  Virginian  named  Ruckman  dis 
Covered  manganese  at  Cass  station,  Bartow  county,  and  recognized  a 
similarity  between  these  ores  and  those  of  Virginia.  In  1867  the  prop- 
erty was  bought  for  mining  purposes  by  Mr.  M.  G.  Dobbins,  who  has 
furnished  the  following  information  :  In  1870  the  mines  were  rented  to 
a  company  of  New  York  capitalists  who  extracted  about  5,000  tons  of 
ore  from  less  than  one-half  acre  of  land,  without  going  deeper  than  40 
feet.  The  property  has  now  gone  into  the  hands  of  the  Bartow  Man- 
ganese and  Manufacturing  Company,  with  $30,000  paid  stock.  The 
company  consists  of  M.  G.  Dobbins  and  others.  Nearly  the  whole  year 
has  been  spent  in  placing  machinery  in  position  and  in  other  prepara- 
tions for  work.  The  indications  are  that  the  ore  will  find  sale  in  Pitts- 
burgh. A  small  quantity  has  been  shipped  to  England.  The  following 
analyses  give  a  fair  idea  of  the  average  character  of  the  ore.  No.  1 
is  a  sample  analyzed  in  New  York ;  No.  2  is  taken  from  a  lot  of  ore 
shipped  to  England. 

Analyses  of  pyrolusite  from  the  Etowah  region,  Georgia. 


No.  1. 

No.  2. 

Manganese  oxide 

Percent. 
80  00 

Per  cent. 
80  58 

Iron  peroxide     -             

.54 

15  72' 

1  34 

Silica       

.60 

1  32 

Alumina  

.13 

Lime .90 

Magnesia !  .15 

Sulphur ;  .027 

Phosphoric  acid .  33 

Water  and  carbonic  acid i  17.  00 


1.15 


99.  677 


Manganese  available  for  chlorine 


100. 11 


At  Woodstock  station,  Calhoun  county,  Alabama,  about  2,000  tons 
of  manganiferous  ore,  containing  36  per  cent,  metallic  iron  and  23  per 
cent,  manganese,  were  mined  for  the  Woodstock  Iron  Company,  of 


MANGANESE. 


553 


Anuiston,  Alabama,  for  making  spiegel  iron.  The  production  has  ceased; 
no  ore  was  mined  in  1883  or  1884.  The  deposits  at  Candutchkee,  Clay 
county,  have  never  been  mined.  In  Dixon  county,  Tennessee,  there 
are  more  extensive  deposits,  but  not  rich  enough  to  be  used  for  the 
manganese  alone. 

Recently  an  effort  has  been  made  to  obtain  manganese  from  the  de- 
posits known  to  exist  in  Arkansas.  The  following  history  of  these  de- 
posits is  due  to  Mr.  A.  M.  Evans,  general  superintendent  of  the  White 
River  Mining  Company  :  The  discovery  of  manganese  ore  in  Arkansas 
was  accidental.  About  thirty  years  ago  a  Colonel  Martin,  of  Tennessee, 
bought  lands  in  Independence  county,  and  finding  pieces  of  manganese 
ore,  had  them  analyzed,  and  called  the  attention  of  the  iron  masters  in 
England  to  the  discovery.  The  civil  war  put  a  stop  to  further  opera- 
tions. The  deposits  lay  untouched  until  three  years  ago,  when  Mr. 
E.  H.  Woodward  began  working  them,  and  now  several  companies 
are  engaged  in  the  enterprise.  The  ore,  which  is  black  oxide  of  man- 
ganese, occures  in  "pockets"  in  an  ellipitical  belt  of  land,  the  major  axis 
of  which  extends  for  15  miles  through  Independence  and  Izard  counties, 
beginning  3  miles  from  Batesville.  Its  minor  axis  is  from  6  to  8  miles 
long.  The  ore  is  found  resting  upon  Silurian  limestone.  Much  of  it  is 
on  the  surface,  and  the  cost  of  mining  is  said  to  be  very  small.  The 
following  are  analyses,  the  first  of  a  picked  sample,  the  other  three 
samples  of  carloads : 

Analyses  of  manganese  ore  from  Arkansas. 


No.  1. 

No.  2. 

No.  3. 

No.  4. 

Per  cent. 
62  Oi; 

Per  cent. 
49  06 

Per  cent. 
y>  26 

Per  cent. 
55  02 

Metallic  iron                                               

1.05 

3  04 

3.52 

2.05 

Silica 

1  00 

4  00 

2  00 

.01 

.12 

.098 

.  15 

Dp  to  the  present  little  has  been  done  in  sending  >the  ore  to  market, 
but  after  an  era  of  prospecting,  several  companies  have  been  organized 
and  mining  operations  have  actually  begun.  It  is  probable  that  not 
more  than  5,000  tons  have  ever  been  mined  from  these  deposits.  The 
Ferromanganese  Company,  of  which  Mr.  E.  H.  Woodward  is  president, 
has  mines  about  12  miles  from  Batesville ;  it  employs  some  twenty  men, 
with  eight  or  ten  teams,  and  has  shipped  about  50  tons  of  ore.  The  Ar- 
kansas Manganese  Mining  Company,  composed  principally  of  Messrs. 
W.  C.  Whitthorne,  John  C.  Brown,  and  Jerome  Hill,  all  of  Tennessee,  has 
made  some  shipments  of  ore  to  Saint  Louis,  and  is  preparing  for  ex- 
tensive operations.  Mr.  A.  M.  Evans  represents  a  corporation  known 
as  the  White  River  Mining  Company.  This  company  has  shipped  about 
200  tons  of  ore.  The  White  River  Mining  and  Transportation  Company 
controls  a  very  large  body  of  manganese  lands,  and  has  commenced 
operations.  Besides  the  companies  named,  the  firm  of  Hunton  &  Gibb, 
of  Batesville,  is  making  preparations  for  active  work.  The  industry  is 


554  MINERAL    RESOURCES. 

in  the  experimental  stage,  and  many  questions  remain  for  decision  by 
practical  tests  before  the  true  importance  of  the  new  field  can  be  de- 
termined. 

There  are  many  deposits  in  Virginia  which  once  gave  promise  of  great 
value  but,  for  one  or  another  slight  objection,  are  not  mined.  Aside 
from  the  usual  considerations  of  the  percentage  of  manganese,  amount 
of  ore,  cost  of  getting  it  out  of  the  ground,  freight  to  a  manufacturing 
center,  etc.,  is  the  one  of  whether  the  possible  impurities  will  prevent 
its  use  in  the  manufacture  of  steel.  For  the  other  uses  of  manganese 
the  supply  from  the  eastern  States  fully  equals  the  demand.  But  the 
attempt  to  use  some  of  these  eastern  ores  in  steel  making  has  not  been 
markedly  successful  so  far,  because  of  the  phosphorus  which  the  ores 
contain.  A  small  amount  of  this  substance  in  steel  renders  it  "  cold 
short,"  that  is,  brittle  when  cold,  and  more  than  counteracts  the  benefi- 
cial effect  of  the  manganese.  Heretofore  Spanish  iron  ore,  containing 
small  amounts  of  manganese  and  remarkably  free  from  phosphorus, 
has  been  used  for  steel.  The  analyses  given  of  the  Arkansas  ore  indi- 
cate that  it  may  not  contain  too  much  phosphorus  to  act  as  a  valuable 
substitute  for  the  imported  ore.  If  this  proves  to  be  true  it  is  probable 
that  Arkansas  will  exert  a  powerful  influence  on  the  whole  industry, 
whether  the  ore  can  be  brought  to  market  as  cheaply  as  the  Virginia 
ore  or  not.  It  is  evident  from  the  amount  of  capital  invested  that  the 
necessary  tests  will  soon  be  made. 

Manganese  minerals  are  again  met  with  on  the  Pacific  slope.  The 
following  information  has  been  furnished  by  Mr.  C.  G.  Yale:  Manganese 
is  found  in  heavy  deposits  in  California  and  Nevada  and  occurs  in  greater 
or  less  quantity  in  the  Rocky  Mountain  region.  The  only  deposit  that 
has  been  worked  to  any  extent  is  on  Red  Eock  island  in  the  bay  of  San 
Francisco,  concerning  which  nothing  further  is  to  be  said  than  was  given 
in  "  Mineral  Resources  of  the  United  States,  1882,"  no  ore  having  since 
been  mined  from  this  or  any  other  manganese  deposit  on  the  Pacific 
coast.  The  following  comprise  the  other  localities  in  California  where 
the  mineral  has  been  observed :  Near  AngePs  Camp  and  at  Railroad 
Flat,  Calaveras  county;  abundantly  at  Corral  Hollow,  Contra  Costa 
county;  near  Saucelito  and  Tomales,  Marin  county ;  Sweetlaud,  Nevada 
county ;  Mount  Saint  Helena,  Napa  county ;  at  Argentine  and  Mum- 
ford  Hill,  Plumas  county  ;  near  Colton,  San  Bernardino  county ;  Bernal 
Heights,  near  the  city  of  San  Francisco ;  at  several  places  in  Santa 
Clara  and  Sonoma  counties ;  and  near  the  town  of  Columbia,  Tuolumne 
county,  where  pieces  of  ore  weighing  100  pounds  or  more  have  been 
picked  up  on  the  surface  of  the  ground. 

Foreign  sources.— The  manganese  ore  occurring  in  Nova  Scotia  has  an 
important  bearing  on  American  industries  on  account  of  its  exceptional 
freedom  from  iron,  which  makes  it  valuable  for  neutralizing  the  green 
tint  imparted  to  glass  by  iron.  According  to  an  article  by  Mr.  Edwin 
Gilpin,  read  before  the  Royal  Society  at  the  Ottawa  meeting,  this  pure 
pyrolusite  is  found  in  Hants,  Colchester,  Pictou,  and  Cape  Breton  coun- 


MANGANESE. 


555 


ties,  in  quantities  sufficient  for  profitable  mi n ing.  Some  of  these  ores 
are  said  to  contain  95  per  cent,  manganese  dioxide  and  mere  traces  of 
iron.  Small  amounts  are  regularly  imported  by  glass  manufacturers  at 
prices  quite  out  of  proportion  to  native  ores. 

In  Germany,  Sweden,  and  liussia  local  deposits  are  used  by  iron 
manufactuiefs,  but  when  particularly  pure  ores  are  desired  all  these 
countries  import  from  the  rich  deposits  in  Spain  and  Portugal.  Car- 
thagena,  Huelva,  Maibella,  and  Bilboa  are  the  principal  shipping  ports, 
and  England  particularly  obtains  large  amounts  of  ore  from  these 
points. 

Production. — The  statistics  from  many  of  the  small  mines  of  Virginia 
and  Xorth  Carolina  are  practically  inaccessible.  It  is  therefore  impos- 
sible to  determine  exactly  the  total  quantity  mined,  but  the  amount  for 
1883  and  1884  can  be  stated  as  18,000  long  tons  to  a  very  clo>e  approxi- 
mation, of  which  8,000  tons  were  mined  in  1883  and  10,000  in  1884.  Of 
this  amount  Virginia  furnished  fully  three-fourths,  Arkansas  a  fifth,  and 
the  balance  was  contributed  by  Georgia  and  North  Carolina.  In  former 
years  Virginia  furnished  nearly  all  the  manganese  mined  in  this  country. 
The  following  table  gives  the  actual  number  of  tons  obtained  from  the 
Crimora  mine,  which  furnishes  by  far  the  largest  part  of  the  Virginia 
supply : 

Production  of  the  Crimora  mine,  Virginia. 


Quantity. 

Priorto  1869  

Long  tons. 
5  684 

May  18C9  to  February  1876 

280 

February,  1876,  to  December  1878     ..     .. 

2  326 

December,  1878,  to  December,  1879  
December,  1879,  to  December  1880     .. 

1,602 
2  353 

December  1880  to  December  1881 

2  397 

December,  1881,  to  April  1882 

165 

April,  1£82,  to  December,  1883     

4,841 

December,  1883,  to  November  19,  1884  
Total  

8,473 
28  051 

The  production  of  manganese  ores  in  foreign  countries  has  always  been 
much  greater  than  in  the  United  States.  In  1874,  the  production  in 
Germany  was  given  as  18,725  long  tons;  in  Austria,  4,937  long  tons; 
the  Huelva  district,  in  Spain,  48,207  long  tons ;  in  England,  6,552  long 
tons.  In  the  latter  country  the  production  has  diminished  markedly; 
thus  in  1882, 1,548  long  tons,  with  a  value  of  £3,907,  were  mined  in  Great 
Britain.  In  1881,  Portugal  produced  9,906  long  tons.  The  production 
in  Italy  for  three  years  ending  1879,  as  furnished  by  American  Consul- 
General  Richmond,  was : 

Production  of  manganese  ore  in  Portugal. 


Years. 

Long  tons. 

Value. 

1877  

6  812 

$40  597 

1878 

6  655 

48  256 

1879  

5  705 

35  065 

556 


MINERAL    RESOURCES. 


Value*— During  the  year  1883  the  price  of  black  oxide  of  manganese 
in  the  United  States  ranged  from  $11  to  $16  per  ton,  according  to  the 
percentage  of  manganese.  The  total  value  of  the  year's  production  was 
about  $120,000.  The  price  declined  in  1884,  and  manganese  ore  con- 
taining 75  per  cent,  manganese  dioxide  is  now  worth  $12  per  ton  at  the 
mines,  or  27  cents  per  metallic  unit  delivered  at  Pittsburgh  or  Johnstown. 
The  total  product  of  1884  may  also  be  valued  at  $120,000.  The  cost  of 
mining  varies  from  $5  to  $10  per  ton  in  the  eastern  States.  It  is  claimed 
that  the  Arkansas  deposits  which  occur  near  the  .surface  can  be  mined 
for  $1.25  per  ton. 

Imports. — Manganese  ores  are  imported  from  l^ova  Scotia,  as  already 
mentioned,  for  use  in  the  manufacture  of  glass.  Some  manganese  also 
finds  its  way  into  this  country  in  the  form  of  iron  ore  containing  about 
20  per  cent,  manganese.  It  is  brought  from  Carthagena  and  Marbella 
as  ballast  by  vessels  seeking  cargo.  The  importations  from  1869  to  1884, 
inclusive,  are  given  in  the  following  table : 

Oxide  and  ore  of  manganese  imported  and  entered  for  consumption  in  the  United  States,  1869 

to  1884  inclusive, 


Fiscal  years  ending  June  30— 

Quantity. 

Value. 

1869  

Pounds. 

$11,  864 

1870        

10  685 

1871  

12,  321 

1872 

9  768 

1873     

1,226  157 

12,  466 

1874 

1  507  448 

16  992 

1875  

1,  119  893 

16,  300 

1876 

386  408 

5  805 

1877  

1,326  136 

15,  747 

1878 

3  068  634 

31  571 

1879     

554  372 

12,094 

1880 

1  864  968 

19  825 

1881  

1,  283,  457 

20,  432 

1882 

2  225  936 

38  879 

1883  

1,  425,  274 

28,  952 

1884 

1  151  531 

24  326 

The  imports  in  1884  were  classified  as — 


Pounds. 

Value. 

Ore 

1  000  095 

$19  989 

Oxide         .... 

151  436 

4  337 

Total                 

1  151  531 

24  326 

Exports. — England  has  been  a  consumer  of  American  manganese  ore 
since  its  mining  was  first  commenced.  The  ore  is  used  in  the  manu- 
facture of  chlorine.  The  following  is  the  value  of  the  exported  ore 
from  1869,  which  was  practically  the  beginning  of  manganese  mining 
in  this  country,  to  the  present  time : 


MANGANESE.  557 

Value  of  manganese  ore  exported  from  the  United  States,  1869-  to  1884  inclusive. 


Fiscal  years  ending  June  30—     " 

Value. 

Fiscal  years  ending  June  30— 

Value. 

1869 

$43  382 

1875                           .     . 

$2  261 

1870  

56,  125 

1876  

1,030 

1871 

7  760 

1878 

3  569 

1873  

41,  075 

1883  „  

6,165 

1874  

9,939 

1884  

1  802 

Utilization. — The  uses  for  manganese  ores  may  be  grouped  under  two 
heads :  (1)  those  in  which  the  oxygen  combined  with  the  manganese  is 
used,  and  (2)  those  in  which  manganese  itself  is  sought.  For  the  first 
group  only  ores  which  are  rich  in  manganese  dioxide  are  used.  When 
heated  strongly  or  treated  with  powerful  acids,  this  substance  serves  as 
a  convenient  source  of  pure  oxygen.  More  frequently  it  is  used  as  an 
"oxidizing  agent,"  that  is,  to  give  up  oxygen  to  some  other  substance, 
rather  than  to  furnish  oxygen  in  the  elementary  form.  Thus  chlorine 
and  bromine  are  prepared  by  this  oxidizing  action  of  manganese  dioxide 
in  the  following  way :  It  is  extremely  difficult  to  separate  these  elements 
from  others  with  which  they  are  ordinarily  in  combination;  it  is  com- 
paratively easy,  however,  to  obtain  the  compound  of  chlorine  known  as 
hydrochloric  or  "muriatic"  acid  from  ordinary  salt  by  treatment  with 
sulphuric  acid.  When  this  substance  is  warmed  with  manganese 
dioxide,  oxygen  from  the  latter  combines  with  the  hydrogen  of  the  acid, 
leaving  part  of  the  chlorine  free.  Large  amounts  of  manganese  are 
used  annually  for  this  purpose,  in  England  particularly.  The  manga- 
nese is  converted  by  this  process  into  manganese  chloride,  which  serves 
as  a  convenient  substance  from  which  all  the  other  salts  of  manganese 
can  be  made.  A  brown  and  a  black  pigment  can  be  obtained  indirectly 
from  it  by  heating  it  in  contact  with  air.  A  green  pigment  is  made  by 
heating  manganese  carbonate,  obtained  from  the  chloride,  in  closed 
vessels.  The  beautiful  violet  color  which  manganese  gives  when  fused 
with  phosphoric  acid  salts  led  to  the  manufacture  of  a  violet  pigment 
called  manganese  or  Kurnberg  violet,  from  these  same  chlorine  residues. 
"RosenstiehPs  green,"  obtained  from  this  source,  is  used  somewhat  for 
printing  on  paper.  It  has  been  found  that  certain  of  the  salts  corre- 
sponding to  manganese  chloride  hasten  the  oxidation  of  linseed  oil.  Thus 
when  linseed  oil  is  boiled  with  manganese  dioxide,  the  addition  of  man- 
ganese borate  aids  in  the  desired  oxidation.  The  most  important  use 
of  these  waste  residues  from  the  chlorine  manufacture  is  in  preparing 
potassium  and  sodium  permanganates.  Formerly  native  manganese 
dioxide  was  fused  with  potassium  chlorate  and  potassium  hydroxide, 
but  the  finely  pulverized  oxide  obtained  from  manganese  chloride  is 
easier  to  convert  into  permanganates.  This  permanganate  of. potassium 
is  used  not  only  for  purely  chemical  purposes,  such  as  the  preparation 
of  specimens  and  the  oxidation  of  various  substances  in  analytic 
chemistry,  but  also  for  technical  purposes  in  determining  the  value  of 


558  MINERAL    RESOURCES. 

iron  ores,  in  bleaching  leather  and  textile  febrics,  for  the  preparation 
of  oxygen  according  to  Motay's  process,  and  for  sanitary  purposes  as 
a  powerful  disinfectant.  But  these  uses  do  not  consume  all  the 
manganese  chloride  which  continually  results  from  the  manufacture  of 
chlorine.  It  is  customary,  therefore,  to  reconvert  manganese  chloride 
by  Weldon's  process  into  a  substance  capable  of  oxidizing  hydrochloric 
acid.  By  this  means  the  same  manganese  is  used  repeatedly.  Were 
it  not  for  this,  the  demand  for  manganese  ores  would  probably  be  more 
than  doubled.  Bromine  is  made  in  a  similar  way,  and  about  one-fifth  of 
the  manganese  ore  mined  in  the  United  States  is  used  at  Pomeroy  and 
other  places  on  the  Ohio  river,  in  the  West  Virginia  and  Ohio  salt  district, 
for  making  bromine.  Thus  far  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  regenerate 
the  manganese  so  used  in  America.  Until  recently  nearly  all  the  native 
ore  was  used  for  one  or  another  oxidizing  purpose  in  this  country,  or 
shipped,  for  similar  use,  to  England.  Meanwhile  large  amounts  of 
manganese  were  imported  to  furnish  manganese  to  the  Bessemer  steel 
works.  There  has  been  prejudice  against  American  ores  on  account  of 
the  phosphorus  they  contain.  Within  the  last  few  years,  however,  the 
manufacture  of  steel  has  consumed  the  greater  part  of  the  native  ore. 
In  just  what  way  manganese  proves  advantageous  in  making  steel  has 
been  an  interesting  subject  of  discussion,  but  one  in  which  it  is  ex- 
tremely difficult  to  obtain  facts  5  partly  because  steel  manufacturers 
are  not  ready  to  reveal  the  secrets  of  their  industry,  and  also  because 
there  are  great  differences  in  the  views  held  by  authorities.  The  fol- 
lowing will  serve  to  indicate  at  least  the  main  features  of  this  subject ; 
further  information  will  be  found  in  the  treatises  on  metallurgy  by 
Percy,  and  in  "  Steel,  its  History,  Manufacture,  and  Uses,"  by  J.  S. 
Jeans,  from  which  much  of  what  follows  has  been  taken : 

It  was  known  in  quite  early  times  that  certain  iron  ores  furnished 
pig  iron  from  which  particularly  good  steel  could  be  made;  it  was 
shown,  later,  that  this  ore  contained  oxides  of  manganese,  but  it  was 
barely  suspected  that  it  was  the  manganese  which  gave  the  improved 
character  to  steel,  until,  in  1839,  Josiah  M.  Heath  found  as  the  re- 
sult of  many  experiments  that  when  a  small  amount  of  manganese 
is  introduced  into  steel  of  poor  quality  in  the  melting  pot,- the  steel 
is  uniformly  improved  and  can  be  welded  to  iron  with  facility.  The 
enormous  change  which  this  discovery  effected  in  the  English  man- 
ufacture of  steel  is  sufficient  testimony  to_  the  correctness  of  Heath's 
claim  that  the  quality  of  poor  steel  is  improved  by  the  addition  of 
smal!  amounts  of  metallic  manganese.  It  became  possible  by  its  aid 
to  dispense  with  Eussian  and  Swedish  iron  and  use  the  inferior  English 
iron.  The  use  of  manganese  became  general,  and  it  has  been  calculated 
that  a  saving  in  the  cost  of  steel  amounting  in  all  to  $10,000,000  had  been 
effected  by  1855.  When  the  Bessemer  process  of  making  steel  was 
introduced  it  was  found  that  the  finished  metal  contained  as  much 
phosphorus  as  the  pig  iron  from  which  it  had  been  made.  It  was  "cold 


MANGANESE  559 

short/'  and  the  effort  was  made  to  add  some  substance  which  would 
overcome  this  objection  cither  by  removing  the  phosphorus  or  by  counter- 
acting its  effects.  For  several  years  Bessemer  was  unable  to  do  this, 
and  was  obliged  to  use  pure  Swedish  pig  iron  in  his  process.  In  1856 
Robert  Mushet  added  to  the  iron  made  in  a  Bessemer  converter  a  small 
quantity  of  cast  iron  containing  manganese,  and  found  that  good  steel 
could  thus  be  made  from  very  impure  cast  iron.  He  recommends  adding 
from  1  to  5  per  cent,  manganese  to  the  metal,  according  to  the  degree 
of  hardness  desired  in  the  resulting  steel.  This  process  immediately 
became  a  general  one,  and  now  a  certain  amount  of  pig  iron  containing 
manganese  is  always  introduced  just  before  Bessemer  steel  is  finished. 
In  the  manufacture  of  open -hearth  steel  also,  manganese  is  used,  so 
that  at  present  manganese  in  the  form  of  an  alloy  with  iron  is  always 
added  to  Bessemer  and  open-hearth  steels  before  these  are  finished. 
But  as  to  the  exact  function  of  manganese  many  opinions  have,  been 
expressed.  Both  Heath  and  Mushet  proposed  to  add  nearly  3  per  cent, 
of  manganese,  but  usually  steel  is  found  to  contain  less  than  1  per  cent.; 
it  is  therefore  evident  that  the  larger  part  finds  its  way  out  of  the  iron 
again,  and  if  it  produces  any  beneficial  effect  this  must  be  sought  in 
some  reaction  which  it  aids  during  its  removal,  by  which  the  steel  loses 
some  impurity.  It  has  been  shown  that  sulphur  can  be  removed  to  a 
considerable  extent  when  manganese  is  introduced  into  a  Bessemer 
converter.  The  majority  of  metallurgists  believe,  however,  that  the 
great,  benefit  is  due  to  the  removal  of  oxygen  from  the  finished  steel. 
It  is  impossible  to  distribute  the  air  of  the  blast  perfectly  through  the 
molten  metal,  and  hence  some  oxide  of  iron  will  be  formed  in  one  por- 
tion of  the  steel  before  all  the  carbon  has  been  removed  from  another; 
the  manganese  introduced  will  oxidize  more  readily  than  iron,  and 
will  reduce  any  oxide  of  iron  that  is  formed.  The  oxide  of  manga- 
nese is  either  blown  out  of  the  converter  in  a  flocculent  mass  or 
unites  with  the  slag,  and  thus  leaves  the  steel  in  a  more  homogeneous 
condition.  The  amount  of  phosphorus  in  steel  is  not  changed  by  the 
addition  of  manganese,  but  it  seems  that  its  deleterious  effect- is  not  so 
apparent  when  a  small  amount  of  manganese  is  present.  According 
to  Mushet  nothing  is  gained  by  adding  manganese  to  steel  which  con- 
tains no  impurities.  The  present  opinion  seems,  therefore,  to  be  that 
manganese  is  valuable  (1)  in  deoxidizing  steel,  (2)  in  aiding  the  re- 
moval of  sulphur,  and  (3)  in  counteracting  the  effect  of  phosphorus. 
The  best  form  in  which  to  introduce  manganese  into  steel  would  un- 
doubtedly be  that  of  the  pure  metal;  but  manganese  is  so  difficultly 
fusible  and  oxidizes  so  readily  that  it  is  impracticable  to  reduce  it  from 
its  ores ;  pure  manganese,  therefore,  is  never  used.  It  is  much  easier  to 
reduce  a  mixture  of  the  oxides  of  manganese  and  iron  and  thus  obtain 
an  alloy  of  these  metals,  which  is  usually  called  u  spiegel  iron  '7  when 
the  manganese  is  less  than  15  or  20  per  cent.,  and  u  ferroinanganese  " 


560  MINERAL    RESOURCES. 

when  it  exceeds  this  percentage,  though  in  practice  the  terms  are  some- 
times used  indiscriminately. 

Manufacture  of  spiegel  iron  is  carried  on  largely  in  Germany,  France, 
and  England,  and  lately  has  become  a  feature  of  American  steel  works. 
The  following  account  of  its  manufacture  is  taken  by  Jeans  from  an 
article  by  Forbes  in  the  Journal  of  the  British  Iron  and  Steel  Institute  : 
The  ores  used  for  making  spiegel  iron  vary  in  the  different  countries. 
In  Germany  it  is  made  entirely  from  manganiferous  spathic  carbonate 
of  iron;  in  Russia  it  is  reduced  from  ferruginous  oxides  of  manganese; 
and  in  Sweden  it  is  produced  by  smelting  a  mixture  of  knebelite  and 
manganiferous  garnet,  uoth  of  which  minerals  are  compound  silicates 
of  iron  and  manganese.  In  one  point,  however,  the  methods  all  agree; 
namely,  that  in  all  these  ores  the  oxides  of  manganese  and  iron,  if  not  in 
actual  combination  as  compound  silicates  or  carbonates,  are  at  any  rate 
in  a  very  intimate  admixture  with  one  another,  and  therein  lies  one  of 
the  most  important  features  connected  with  this  manufacture.  Until 
the  year  1872,  wherever  true  ores  of  manganese  had  been  added  to  the 
usual  charge  of  a  blast  furnace  with  the  expectation  of  obtaining  spiegel 
iron  rich  in  manganese,  it  was  found  as  a  general  rule  tnat  only  a  small 
fraction  of  the  manganese  combined  with  the  iron,  the  major  part  being 
carried  off  in  the  slag.  For  this  reason,  when  it  was  desired  to  pro- 
duce a  cast  iron  containing  much  manganese  it  was  deemed  requisite 
that  this  metal  should  be  added  to  the  charge  in  the  shape  of  some 
strongly  ferruginous  compound,  thereby  facilitating  the  process  of  re- 
duction, since  a  mixture  of  the  two  oxides  (of  manganese  and  iron)  is 
much  more  easily  reduced  to  the  metallic  state,  and  so  enabled  to 
unite  with  the  iron,  from  the  rest  of  the  charge,  than  oxide  of  man- 
ganese alone,  which,  unless  the  heat  is  very  intense  and  the  reducing 
action  of  the  furnace  nearly  perfect,  is  extremely  apt  to  go  into  the 
slag  in  the  state  of  silicate,  from  which  it  can  subsequently  be  recovered 
only  with  great  difficulty.  The  oxides  of  manganese  are  very  much 
less  easily  reduced  and  require  more  time  as  well  as  a  much  higher  tem- 
perature than  the  oxides  of  iron,  and  hence  it  follows  that  in  making 
spiegel  iron  particular  attention  should  be  paid  to  the  following  points: 

1.  The  mineral  used  as  a  source  of  manganese  should  be  in  itself 
highly  charged  with  iron,  so  as  to  facilitate  and  insure  the  reduction  of 
as  large  an  amount  of  the  manganese  contained  in  it  as  possible. 

2.  The  charge  of  the  furnace  should  be  highly  basic,  or,  in  other 
words,  an  excess  of  limestone,  or  preferably  burnt  lime,  should  be  used. 

3.  The  working  of  the  furnace  should  be  much  slower  than  is  usual 
in  iron  smelting,  in  order  to  allow  more  time  for  the  reduction  of  the 
oxides  of  manganese. 

4.  The  temperature  of  the  blast  furnace  should  be  as  high  as  possible, 
using  as  hot  a  blast  as  can  be  obtained,  and  as  coke  admits  of  the  use 
of  a  sharper  blast,  and  affords  greater  heat,  it  is  to  be  preferred  to 
charcoal  in  this  manufacture. 


MANGANESE. 


561 


Bussian  spiegel  iron  is  smelted  with  charcoa^and  is  known  for  its  good 
quality.  In  order  to  increase  the  amount  of  manganese  in  gray  pig  iron 
which  already  contains  1.2  per  cent,  of  manganese,  so  as  to  obtain  spiegel 
iron,  12  to  15  per  cent,  of  pure  native  oxide  of  manganese  (pyrolusite) 
has  been  added,  producing  a  low  spiegel  iron  containing  from  5  to  6  per 
cent,  metallic  manganese. 

In  Sweden  spiegel  iron  is  made  by  smelting  a  mixture  of  knebelite  and 
manganiferous  garnet  containing  an  average  of  42  per  cent,  iron  and  13 
per  cent., manganese  with  equal  parts  charcoal  and  coke,  the  ore  being 
fluxed  with  30  per  cent,  limestone.  The  ore  frequently  contains  visible 
particles  of  galena,  pyrites,  and  zincblende,  but  it  is  stated  that  no  sul- 
phur is  found  in  the  spiegel  iron,  although  the  slag,  which  has  a  peculiar 
yellow-green  color  when  the  furnace  is  working  weir  is  said  to  contain 
4  per  cent,  sulphur,  and  up  to  as  much  as  16  per  cent,  oxide  of  .man- 
ganese. The  ordinary  spiegel  iron  made  at  Schisshyttan,  Dalecarlia,  is 
superior  to  the  average  German  product,  and  contains  an  average  of  13 
per  cent,  manganese,  with  about  4  per  cent,  carbon,  or  5  per  cent,  car- 
bon and  silicon.  Occasionally  it  has  been  as  high  as  17  per  cent.  Alex- 
ander Keiller,  the  manager  of  these  works,  informed  Forbes  that  he 
was,  in  1872,  producing  spiegel  iron  which  averaged  15  per  cent,  man- 
ganese, with  only  2.5  per  cent,  carbon,  but  that  this  metal  was  altogether 
different  in  appearance  and  could  not  be  made  to  assume  the  crystal- 
lized, bladed,  reflecting  fracture  peculiar  to  spiegel  (specular)  iron,  and 
from  which  its  name  is  derived.  The  characteristics  of  good  spiegel 
iron  are  thus  described  :  (1)  A  highly  crystalline  structure  with  large 
and  smooth  cleavage  planes  ;  (2)  a  tendency  to  iridescent  tarnish,  and 
(3)  a  chemical  analysis  showing  10  to  12  per  cent,  metallic  manganese, 
which  is  quite  sufficient  for  ordinary  purposes,  about  4  per  cent,  com- 
bined carbon,  less  than  1  per  cent,  silicon,  not  more  than  1  per  cent, 
phosphorus  or  copper,  and  only  traces  of  sulphur  and  other  elements. 
Uncombined  carbon  in  the  form  of  graphite  should  not  be  present. 

The  following  analyses  of  spiegel  iron  represent  the  character  of  the 
best  kinds  imported  into  New  York  in  1868,  1869,  and  1873 : 

Analyses  of  imported  spiegel. 


18 

38. 

ise 

"' 

'       18' 

rs. 

Iron 

Per  cent. 
85  57 

Per  cent 
84  455 

Percent. 

84  192 

Per  cent. 

84  869 

Percent. 

Percent. 

Manganese  

9.142 

10  625 

10  5G8 

10  223 

11.  130 

10.22 

Copper 

032 

0'J4 

036 

031 

279 

.20 

Nickel  and  cobalt  

.005 

.005 

004 

002 

Silicon 

OG8 

368 

268 

384 

Carbon 

5  048 

4  304 

4  907 

4  461 

Sulpbur                .       .  . 

002 

001 

Phosphorus 

037 

044 

104 

027 

039 

06 

Aluminum  

082 

045 

032 

012 

Calcium 

015 

016 

021 

99  999 

99  898 

100  062 

100  010 

562 


MINERAL    RESOURCES. 


Subjoined  are  some  further  analyses  of  spiegel  iron  given  by  Hackney 
in  the  "Proceedings  of  the  Civil  Engineers,  April,  1875:" 

Analyses  of  other  foreign  spiegels. 


No.  1. 

No.  2. 

No.  3. 

No.  4, 

No.  5. 

No.  6. 

No.  7. 

No.  8. 

No.  9. 

Iron  ......               

Per  ct. 
89  527 

Perct. 

86.  000 

Per  ci. 

83  777 

Per  ct. 

Per  ct. 
83.08 

Per  ct. 

Per  ct. 
75.  100 

Per  ct. 

70.  34 

Per  ct. 
65.81 

Manganese  

5.619 

8.500 

11  782 

12.  000 

12.30 

18.  870 

20.  350 

23.48 

28.70 

Carbon 

4  410 

4  00 

4  538 

4.500 

3.90 

4.500 

3.800 

5.31 

5.28 

Silicon  

.161 

1.10 

041 

.130 

.54 

1.050 

.254 

.09 

.01 

Phosphorus 

.047 

288 

084 

.075 

.08 

.102 

.029 

.37 

.38 

Sulphur  

.017 

.03 

.  010 

.010 

Trace. 

Trace. 

.010 

Trace. 

Trace. 

Copper 

04 

015 

.002 

.063 

Trace. 

Trace. 

Trace. 

288 

100.  069 

99  958 

100  247 

99.90 

99.  543 

99.59 

100.  18 

1.  Swedish  spiegel.    Authority:  G-.  J.  Snelus,  Journal  Iron  and  Steel  Institute,  1874,  page  76. 

2.  Rhenish  spiegel  iron,  from  Spaeter  .and  Wirth,  Coblentz.    Analyst :  A.  Willis. 

3.  Landore  spiegel  iron.    Analyst:  E.  Riley. 

4.  Landore  spiegel  iron.     Analyst:  A.  Willis. 

5.  West  Cumberland  spiegel  iron.    Authority  :  G.  J .  Snelus,  loc.  cit.,  page  73.    Analyst :  G.  J.  Snelus. 

6.  Dowlais  spiegel  iron.    Authority:  G  J.  Snelus,  loc.  cit.    Analyst:  W.Jenkins. 

7.  Spiegel  iron  made  at  Schisshyttan  iron  works,  Sweden.    Authority :  D.  Forbes,  Journal  Iron  and 
Steel  Institute,  1874,  page  467. 

Nos.  8  and  9.  Spiegel  iron  from  Illyria,  Austria,  made  by  the  Krainischen  Eisen-Iiidnstrie  Gesell- 
schaft.    Authority :  D.  Forbes,  loc.  cit.    Analysts :  Of  No.  8,  M.  Lill ;  of  No.  9,  H.  Sturm. 

The  percentage  of  spiegel  iron  which  is  introduced  into  the  Bessemer 
converter  or  into  open-hearth  steel  varies  between  1  and  5  per  cent, 
according  to  the  amount  of  manganese  in  the  spiegel  iron,  and  also 
according  to  the  condition  of  the  iron.  If  the  elimination  of  carbon  has 
been  quite  complete  more  spiegel  iron  will  be  necessary  to  combat  oxi- 
dation and  leave  the  desired  quantity  of  manganese  in  the  finished 
product.  As  has  been  said,  a  large  part  of  the  manganese  is  driven 
out  of  the  iron  into  the  slag,  but  usually  about  0.25  per  cent,  (from  0.1 
to  0.8  per  cent.)  remains  in  the  iron.  In  an  example  by  Mr.  Snelus  251 
pounds  of  spiegel  iron  containing  8.88  per  cent,  manganese  was  added 
to  72  cwts.  of  pig  iron.  If  no  manganese  had  been  lost  22.288  pounds 
of  this  metal  would  have  been  found.  But  only  7.28  pounds  were 
actually  found,  showing  that  15  pounds,  or  about  two-thirds,  had  been 
removed,  leaving  steel  containing  0.104  per  cent,  manganese. 

The  following  determinations  of  the  quantity  of  manganese  in  various 
kinds  of  steel  are  given  by  Kessler  in  Dingler's  Polyteclmische.  Journal: 

Amount  of  manganese  in  steel. 


Steels. 


Per  cent. 


0  437  to  0  438 

Bochuiu  cast  steel  

0.  312  to  0  317 

0  327  to  0  332 

Manganese  steel  of  Ludwif  in  Berlin  

0.  303 

0  035 

Hoerder  steel   

0.  107  to  0.  170 

Cannon  steel  (Terre  Noire) 

0  240 

Common  steel  (Barroin)  

0.  240 

Hail  steel  (Creusot) 

0  550 

Kail  steel  (Petit  Gaudin)  

0.560 

Kail  steel  (Terre  Noire) 

0  860 

Rail  steel  (Seraing)  

0.650 

MANGANESE.  568 

It  has  been  found  beneficial  in  making  soft  steel  to  add  1  per  cent, 
of  manganese  j  but  as  spiegel  iron  contains  4  to  5  per  cent,  carbon, 
too  much  of  this  latter  substance  would  be  introduced  into  the  steel  if 
spiegel  iron  were  used  to  furnish  the  manganese.  An  alloy  called  "  ferro- 
manganese," containing  a  larger  proportion  of  manganese  and  no  more 
carbon,  is  therefore  necessary. 

Ferromanganese. — In  general,  when  the  amount  of  manganese  in  iron 
exceeds  20  per  cent.,  it  is  no  longer  called  spiegel  iron,  but  ferromanga- 
nese; the  distinction  is  due,  however,  not  so  much  to  the  proportion  of 
manganese  to  iron,  but  to  the  process  of  manufacture.  Spiegel  iron  is 
made  in  the  blast  furnace,  and  this  has  been  the  method  of  preparing  it 
since  its  first  use  in  the  iron  industry.  But  no  matter  what  proportion 
of  manganese  ore  is  used,  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  introduce  more  than 
10  per  cent,  of  manganese  when  a  flux  with  considerable  silica  is  used. 
When  a  greater  proportion  was  desired  it  was  the  custom  until  recently 
to  resort  to  one  or  another  modification  of  a  process  originated  by  Bes- 
semer, in  which  the  desired  reduction  of  manganese  ores  is  effected  in 
crucibles.  This  process,  as  first  introduced  on  an  industrial  scale  by 
Prieger,  of  Bonn,  consists  in  heating  a  mixture  of  manganese  dioxide, 
small  lumps  of  cast  iron,  powder,  lime,  glass,  and  charcoal  in  a  graphite 
crucible.  The  higher  the  temperature  the  richer  is  the  resulting  alloy 
in  manganese,  so  that  it  is  practicable  at  the  highest  temperature  of  a 
reverberatory  furnace  to  obtain  an  alloy  with  60  per  cent,  manganese. 
A  process  invented  by  W.  Henderson,  of  Glasgow,  and  largely  used  at 
Terre  Noire,  dispenses  with  crucibles.  An  intimate  mixture  of  manga- 
nese carbonate,  iron  oxide,  and  powdered  charcoal  is  heated  red  hot  for 
several  hours  in  the  reducing  flame  of  a  Siemens  furnace.  By  this 
means  a  metallic  sponge  is  obtained.  By  raising  the  temperature  to 
white  heat,  the  sponge  melts,  giving  ferromanganese  containing  20  to 
30  per  cent,  manganese.  Several  patents  obtained  in  late  years  contain 
only  unimportant  modifications  of  these  processes.  But  since  1873  the 
use  of  coke  in  blast  furnaces  and  a  highly  basic  slag  has  made  it  possi- 
ble to  produce  ferromanganese  containing  60,  and  even  80,  per  cent,  of 
manganese  by  the  blast-furnace  process.  The  use  of  coke  aids  in  ob- 
taining a  temperature  sufficiently  high  for  the  reduction  of  manganese, 
and  the  basic  slag  does  not  carry  off  much  manganese  with  it.  It  was 
formerly  the  custom  to  use  manganese  dioxide  in  the  blast  furnace,  but 
this  is  reduced  to  manganic  oxide  in  the  upper  part  of  the  furnace  by 
carbon  monoxide  from  the  reduction  going  on  below.  This  causes  such 
overheating  of  the  throat  of  the  furnace  that  the  gases  cannot  be  col- 
lected. The  manganese  ores  are  therefore  reduced  to  manganic  oxide  in 
a  separate  furnace. 


664 


MINERAL  RESOURCES. 


The  following  analysis  will  show  the   constitution  of  ferromanga- 
nese :  (a) 

Analysis  of  ferromanganese. 


Percent. 

Manganese  ... 

69.64 

Iron 

23  45 

Carbon  . 

6.21 

Silicon  

.28 

Copper 

.14 

Phosphorus.  .......  ..        .. 

.06 

Sulphur 

Trace 

907T 

The  manufacture  of  spiegel  iron  and  ferromanganese  in  the  United 
States. — Up  to  the  present  time  the  greater  part  of  the  spiegel  iron  used 
in  the  Bessemer  steel  process  in  this  country  has  been  imported  from 
Europe.  The  largest  quantity  imported  in  any  one  year  was  25,000 
tons.  In  1870  the  manufacture  of  spiegel  iron  was  undertaken  by  the 
New  Jersey  Zinc  Company,  of  Newark,  New  Jersey,  which  has  furnaces 
each  20  by  7  feet,  with  a  combined  annual  capacity  of  5,000  long  tons. 
The  spiegel  iron  made  by  this  company  is  said  to  be  equal  to  the  best 
that  is  imported,  and  is  therefore  readily  sold.  The  following  are  two 
analyses  of  it : 

Analyses  of  American  spiegel  iron. 


Percent, 

Per  cent. 

Iron  

83  250 

83  23 

Manganese  

11.  586 

11.67 

Phosphorus 

196 

19 

Silicon 

.367 

.99 

Carbon  

4.6  2 

4.02 

100.  031 

100.  10 

It  is  said  that  pig  iron  quite  rich  in  manganese  is  made  at  several 
furnaces  in  the  United  States,  but  not  of  a  quality  that  will  justify  its 
use  as  spiegel  iron.  In  1875  the  Bethlehem  Iron  Company  and  the 
Cambria  Iron  Company  commenced  to  make  spiegel  iron  from  Spanish 
ores.  In  the  same  year  the  Woodstock  Iron  Company,  of  Anniston, 
Calhoun  county,  Alabama,  undertook  to  make  spiegel  iron  from  the 
Alabama  ores.  The  manganese  ores  which  they  used  contained  some- 
what over  20  per  cent,  metallic  manganese ;  these  were  smelted  with 
iron  ore  containing  58.25  per  cent,  iron,  8.56  per  cent,  manganese,  and 
1.42  per  cent,  phosphorus.  Samples  of  the  product,  taken  for  analysis 
on  the  following  dates,  were  found  to  have  the  following  composition : 


a  Hofmann'u  Entwickelung  der  Chemie,  page  849. 


MANGANESE. 

Analyses  of  splegel  iron  from  Woodstock,  Alabama. 


565 


December 
10,  1875. 

January 
6,  1876. 

February 
1,  1876. 

February 
3,  1876/ 

Per  cent 

85.  11 

Per  cent. 
85  98 

Per  cent. 
80.37 

Per  cent. 
73.86 

10.  18 

8  14 

14  33 

20  69 

Carbon                         

3.66 

4.83 

4.94 

4  32 

.95 

88 

38 

93 

Phosphorus    ....               

.10 

.17 

.18 

.17 

Total             

100.  00 

100.00 

100.  20 

99.97 

The  enterprise  has  not  proved  remunerative  at  this  place;  about 
2,000  tons  of  manganese  ore  were  used  in  all.  No  spiegel  iron  was 
made  here  in  1883  or  1884.  A  successful  attempt  to  make  spiegel  iron 
was  made  at  the  Bessemer  works,  in  Pueblo,  Colorado,  in  1883.  At 
present  the  chief  producers  of  spiegel  iron  are:  The  Edgar  Thomson 
(Carnegie  Brothers)  Steel  Works,  the  Bethlehem  Iron  Company,  the 
Cambria  Iron  Company,  the  Brier  Hill  Iron  and  Coal  Company,  the 
Lehigh  Zinc  and  Iron  Company,  and  the  Passaic  Zinc  Company. 

The  manufacture  of  ferromangauese  was  attempted  some  years  ago 
at  the  Diamond  furnace,  in  Georgia.  It  did  not  prove  successful.  The 
only  other  attempt  to  utilize  native  manganese  ores  in  the  production 
of  ferromanganese  was  made  in  August,  1884,  at  the  Edgar  Thomson 
Steel  Works,  at  Bessemer,  Pennsylvania.  At  this  time,  blast  furnace 
A  began  making  ferro manganese  instead  of  spiegel  iron.  The  product 
is  said  to  contain  from  80  to  90  per  cent,  of  metallic  manganese,  and  92 
per  cent,  has  been  reached.  The  daily  product  is  from  45  to  50  tons. 
Besides  supplying  their  own  steel  plant,  Carnegie  Brothers  are  thus  en- 
abled to  supply  the  open-hearth  furnaces  of  neighboring  steel  works, 
and  it  is  probable  that  this  new  departure  will  materially  lessen,  if  not 
suppress,  the  importation  of  ferromangauese. 

Hddfield^s  manganese  steel. — In  ordinary  steel  the  proportion  of  man- 
ganese seldom  exceeds  0.5  per  cent.,  and  1.5  per  cent,  is  the  maximum 
which  has  been  added  in  the  ordinary  processes  of  steel  manufacture. 
Recently,  however,  Mr.  Robert  Hadfield,  of  the  Hadfield  Steel  Foundry 
Company,  Sheffield,  England,  has  claimed  that  steel  containing  from  7 
to  30  per  cent,  manganese  is  harder,  stronger,  denser,  and  tougher  than 
ordinary  steel,  even  when  the  latter  has  been  forged  and  rolled,  and  in 
addition  he  believes  this  steel  to  possess  properties  which  will  make  it 
exceedingly  valuable  for  many  purposes  for  which  ordinary  steel  is  not 
now  used.  In  order  to  make  this  steel,  melted  ferromanganese  (Mr. 
Hadfield  recommends  that  containing  80  per  cent,  manganese,  and  as 
low  as  possible  in  carbon,  silicon,  and  other  foreign  bodies)  is  added  to 
iron  which  has  been  nearly  or  quite  freed  from  carbon,  or  to  molten 
steel.  The  mang^fiese  is  thoroughly  incorporated  by  stirring,  and  the 
steel  is  poured  into  ingots  or  other  suitable  molds.  The  percentage 
of  ferromanganese  to  be  used  must  be  varied  according  to  the  use 


56f>  MINERAL    RESOURCES. 

to  which  it  is  to  be  put.  No  absolutely  exact  proportions  can  be 
given.  To  produce  a  steel  suitable  for  armor  plates,  sufficient  ferro- 
mauganese  to  give  10  per  cent,  of  manganese  in  the  steel  should  be 
added;  for  wheels,  axles,  or  railroad  plant,  say  11  per  cent.;  edge 
tools,  12  per  cent.  It  is  claimed  that  the  metal  when  melted  is  very 
thin  and  mobile,  casts  without  rnisruuning,  does  not  settle  as  much 
as  ordinary  castings,  and  does  not  draw,  particularly  at  the  junc- 
tion of  the  thin  and  thick  parts.  The  steel  is  said  to  be  tough 
without  forging,  rolling,  or  hammering.  An  ingot  with  9  per  cent, 
manganese  which  had  not  been  forged  was  bent  1J  inches  in  2J  feet 
before  breaking.  Hammered  samples  from  this  ingot  gave  a  tensile 
strength  of  42  tons  (94,080  pounds)  •  and  20.85  per  cent,  elongation. 
Besides  unusual  toughness  the  steel  is  very  hard  ;  specimens  containing 
9  to  10  per  cent,  manganese  can  be  drilled,  etc.,  but  not  so  readily  as 
ordinary  steel,  while  it  is  practically  impossible  to  drill  or  turn  those 
containing  higher  percentages.  An  ax  made  from  19  per  cent,  steel  cut 
through  f -inch  iron.  If  future  investigation  of  such  manganese  steel 
shows  that  it  can  be  made  regularly  with  the  properties  claimed  for  it, 
there  is  little  doubt  that  it  will  be  a  valuable  addition  to  the  varieties  of 
hard  steel  now  in  use. 

Other  alloys  of  manganese. — Alloys  of  copper,  such  as  brass  and  bronze, 
may  be  rendered  denser  and  harder  by  the  addition  of  manganese;  if 
more  than  8  per  cent,  of  manganese  is  added  its  presence  is  indicated 
by  the  gray  color  of  the  alloy,  which  then  becomes  brittle.  A  beneficial 
effect  is  also  observed  when  manganese  is  added  to  bronze  or  brass 
which  is  impure  from  the  presence  of  copper  oxide ;  manganese  oxide 
is  formed,  which  rises  to  the  surface  and  may  be  removed.  These  alloys 
of  manganese  have  received  considerable  attention  in  England  in 
late  years  and  have  come  into  quite  extensive  use  in  the  place  of  gun 
metal  for  main  bearings,  top  and  end  brasses,  crank  pins,  etc.,  on  large 
steamers,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  extension  of  the  manganese  inter- 
ests will  be  in  this  direction  during  the  next  few  years. 


